David Loy to lecture on consumerism and ecology at Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt News Service, Feb 28, 2008

Nashville, TN (USA) -- Buddhist scholar David Loy will discuss how that religious tradition offers a fresh spiritual perspective on consumerism and ecology during a lecture at Vanderbilt University.

Loy, who holds the Besl Family Chair of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University, will speak at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 18, in Benton Chapel on the Vanderbilt campus.

The lecture is free and the public is invited. The lecture will serve as both the spring lecture of Vanderbilt’s Center for the Study of Religion and Culture and Vanderbilt Divinity School’s annual Howard L. Harrod Lecture.

Loy is a proponent of the Buddhist world view to transform the sociopolitical landscape of the modern world. His latest book is Money, Sex, War Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution, which will be available for purchase at the lecture. He will speak on “Healing Ecology: A ‘New’ Spiritual Perspective on the Challenge of Consumerism.”

The CSRC Annual Spring Lecture brings to campus scholars doing creative and distinguished work at the intersections of religion and culture. Howard L. Harrod was the Oberlin Alumni Professor of Social Ethics and Sociology of Religion at Vanderbilt Divinity School. He taught for more than 30 years at Vanderbilt, and the annual Howard L. Harrod lecture was established to honor his distinguished legacy of scholarship and university service.